Re: [OPE] Call for Paers: [MARXISM 21] special issue

The IWW seems to have done a better practical job of explaining exploitation than is usually done now:

The poster informs us that in the decade of 1860 the wages paid were over $300,000,000. It also informs us that the wealth produced by labor during that same period was nearly $2,000,000,000. Applying that arithmetical calculation to the two full sets of figures, we ascertain that the wages were twenty per cent of the wealth produced.

Now we are in possession of a fact. It is not a very cheering fact, but it is a useful fact to know. It is the first fact that conveys practical information. By its light the huge total wage of over $300,000,000 shrinks to its real, its social, dimensions. We now know, from the figures given by the poster itself, that in 1860, out of every $100 that he produced, the workingman got only $20: somebody else got $80; from it we learn that in 1860 the workingman was plundered out of $80 for every $100 worth of wealth that he brought into existence. Immediately a suspicion arises in our minds as to who this fat and festive Uncle Sam must be. But we snuff out the suspicion; twenty per cent of one’s product is not much; indeed, it is very little; but we remember that this is only a start, and that the soaring figures promise progress. Encouraged by this hope, we proceed to test the next decade.

…

The figures furnished by the poster itself reveal that we are in 1890 just where we were when we started in 1860. After thirty years of arduous toil; after thirty years, during which the soil of the land was literally drenched with the sweat and blood and marrow of the workingman; after thirty years during which the American working class produced more heiresses to the square inch than the working class of any other country, to purchase European noblemen for husbands; at the end of thirty years during which the working class, as this poster itself shows, produced a phenomenal amount of wealth” at the end of these thirty years the American working class is just where it was thirty years before, the wretched retainer of only $20 out of every $100 worth of wealth that it produced!

Daniel DeLeon An address delivered in

Union Temple, Minneapolis, Minn., July 10, 1905

Originally titled The Preamble of the IWW


From: ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu [mailto:ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu] On Behalf Of Dave Zachariah
Sent: 10 September 2010 08:40
To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list
Subject: Re: [OPE] Call for Paers: [MARXISM 21] special issue

On 9 September 2010 16:38, Alejandro Valle Baeza <valle@servidor.unam.mx<mailto:valle@servidor.unam.mx>> wrote:
Dave, I think it would be useful to write to Marxism 21 editors your
opinions. I published an article in Marx 21 (2008) and I know they are
open minded and very good Marxist.


Yes, that might be a good idea. I just hope I can find the time to write something of greater length than posts on OPE-L.

//Dave Z


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Received on Fri Sep 10 07:26:47 2010